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ADA Protection of Negative Attitudes at Work

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Does the ADA protect an employee that constantly fights verbally with others? I know that there are some protections for people with OCD and Turrets and fighting or hostility is sort of a disability too, right?

Sort of. The Americans with Disabilities Act is in place to protect people that have disabilities – including mental disabilities. If you have an employee that cannot control his or her behavior, he or she may be mentally impaired. However, be sure that you are not making excuses for an employee that simply has a bad attitude – as a mental impairment and a bad attitude are often very similar.

Stress and depression can add to an employee’s feelings of discouragement and hostility. Therefore, it is your job to ensure that you are holding our employees accountable to their attitudes and not simply writing off a hostile employee as a mentally ill, depressed, or stressed employee.

If you have an employee in your company that is hostile or that has a very negative attitude while at work, find out if he or she is claiming to have a disability. You are within your right to ask for medical certification of the disability if she or she does, in fact, claim to have one. Be sure that he or she is not simply claiming to have a disability in order to avoid doing work.

Even if your employee has certification, you may also be able to ask for a second opinion on the diagnosis. However, the employee’s family may also be able to explain the condition in order to verify it. Be sure that you are not invading your employee’s privacy by pushing for more verification than she is prepared or able to give.

If that doesn’t work, then you need to have proof that your employee is aware of his or her job duties and fails to meet those job requirements. You can discipline the employee for such occurrences, so you may want to include in those job requirements that your employee conducts him or herself in a courteous, respectful manner and does not speak negatively about other staff members.